Sigma Tau Delta plans writing portal for students

Program to aid users from classwork to personal works

Photo by Rebekah Wortham
Cora Bishoppetty, freshman, reads a poem at the Sigma Tau Delta annual poetry reading located in the University Center Starbucks. Sigma Tau Delta holds the poetry reading once every month.

"Dr. Musgrove called a meeting of English majors in September of 2016, and asked for suggestions of things we would like to see happen," Sigma Tau Delta President Bonnie Kennedy said. "It was suggested at the time that student writers would like to have way to share their original work and get feedback from their peers."

At this meeting, there were several ideas given out on what the writing tool would be.

"One possibility we discussed was the creation of an online writing portal to which students could upload their work, and have a discussion board for other students to comment and critique," Kennedy said.

This site will allow students to be able to not only submit English class assignments but all types of writing.

"Ideally, the site will have a separate folder for each genre, such as fiction, poetry, non-fiction (journalism), technical, and theatre, and each folder will have its own discussion board or blog," Kennedy said.

Those in Sigma Tau Delta have been informing students about this project.

"I sent out a letter through Dr. Musgrove to all English majors and about 10-15 responded that they are interested," Kennedy said.

When asked about this writing portal, students responded that they would like to have a resource that will allow them to interact with one another on writing assignments.

"I would like to see it created," freshman Sarah Adame said. "It will be helpful to everyone because it is convenient for students who cannot make it to the writing center or have limited time."

The writing center only sees and gives feedback over one paragraph from a whole writing assignment.

"I feel that it is not enough because you cannot tell how good an essay is by just one paragraph," Adame said. "You need to read the whole thing to understand it and see how it is as a whole."

Students are looking forward to this writing webpage because it will be other students taking their time to look over their work and critique it before turning it in.

"Seeing the fact that someone actually took the time to read through and make helpful corrections to the essay is good," Adame said.

To know more about this writing portal contact Sigma Tau Delta President Bonnie Kennedy at bkennedy3@angelo.edu

"The goal is to help create a strong student writing community on the ASU campus that will attract students from every department," Kennedy said.